The invention relates to a vessel comprising a substantially vertical frame attached to a vessel support structure, an upper clamping element, vertically displaceable along the frame via a displacement member, a lower clamping element, aligned with the upper clamping element, a loading device for supplying a pipe segment to the upper clamping element, control means adapted to control the displacement member and the upper and lower clamping elements for lowering the pipe segment by the displacement member along a pipe trajectory, the upper clamping element being engaged on the pipe segment, while the lower clamping element is disengaged.
J-lay towers are known in which pipe segments are lowered from the J-lay tower according to the hand-over-hand principle by intermittently holding the sea-pipe by a travelling clamp and by a fixed clamp. The known J-lay towers are often relatively heavy and not suitable to easily retrofit existing vessels with J-lay equipment.